Violence in the Community: How to Recognize and Respond to It

Abt, T. P. (2017). Towards a framework for preventing community violence among youth.  Psychology, Health & Medicine ,  22 , 266–285.  

In the article,   Abt (2017) discusses evidence-driven strategies for fighting violence among the youth in the communities. Abt. Unravels the meaning of community violence, establishes the need for a novel framework for anti-community violence, blends different concepts from public health and public safety fields, categories and summarizes systematic reviews on community violence, and finally presents evidence-supported strategies to mitigate community violence. Abt uses qualitative research and descriptive methodology in discussing applied violence prevention measures and potentially new ways of preventing community violence. Abt concludes that models and theories from public health and criminal justice should be integrated into formulating effecting violence prevention approaches. The article asserts that violence in the community is different from violence in schools and homes. Furthermore, different but connected strategies such as hot spot policing focused deterrence, firearms enforcement, school-based programs, and alcohol regulation should be used in areas experiencing high violence rates. 

Tillyer, M. S., Wilcox, P., & Fissel, E. R. (2018). Violence in schools: Repeat victimization, low self-control, and the mitigating influence of school efficacy. 

Journal of Quantitative Criminology

The article, Tillyer, Wilcox, and Fissel (2018) investigate the distribution of different ways through which adolescents are violently victimized in school, as well as the interactive impact of school efficacy and low self-control. Tillyer, Wilcox, and Fissel (2018) use quantitative research methods to collect data from teachers and students. Tillyer and his colleagues apply the Poisson model to determine the frequency of assault victimization. The article uses nonlinear models to evaluate the core, as well as interactive effects of school efficacy and low self-control on repeat violent victimization. According to the findings, violent victimization is distributed non-randomly across the students. Tillyer et al. further concluded that repeat violent victimization was proportional to low self-control, but school efficacy significantly weakened repeat assault oppression. 

Similarities 

In both articles by Abt (2017) and Tillyer et al. (2018), the authors explore the violence concept. Although the context of the violence discussed in both articles differs, they both explore the impact of behavioral aspects on violence. Similarly, Abt and Tillyer et al. investigated possible ways of boosting the reduction of violence among the youth in schools. Abt covered school-based programs while Tillyer and colleagues explored school efficacy. 

Differences 

While Abt (2017) is concerned with violence prevention interventions, Tillyer et al. (2018) focus on the frequency of violent victimization in the school setting. The latter further investigates the cause of violent oppression in the school in which they conclude low self-control as a major factor. Abt discussed school program as one of the ways of minimizing violence; however, Tyllyer et al. (2018) further determine the effectiveness of the school programs in curbing violent behavior in the institutional centers. On a different note, Abt (2017) used descriptive qualitative research methods, Tillyer et al. (2018) used quantitative research methods. The article by Abt (2017) is based on the community context while the Tillyer et al. (2018) expert focuses on the school context. Finally, the Abt (2017) publication lacks a clear theoretical model; to the contrary, the Tillyer et al. (2018) article uses a precise conceptual model- Poisson Model. 

Further Research 

The article by Tillyer et al. (2018) narrowed down into the school system as its area of study. Further research is needed to explore a broad-based context to discuss different forms of violent victimization in other settings. Additionally, future research should investigate how risk factors on the individual level interact with the universal setting to influence the possibility of repeat victimization. Although the Abt (2017) excerpt discussed community violence, it eliminated a crucial part, the role of home violence in the communities. In this regard, further research is required to investigate the connection between early exposure to an intimate partner or family violence to assault victimization perpetrated by individuals later in their lives. 

References

Abt, T. P. (2017). Towards a framework for preventing community violence among youth.  Psychology, Health & Medicine ,  22 , 266–285.

Tillyer, M. S., Wilcox, P., & Fissel, E. R. (2018). Violence in schools: Repeat victimization, low self-control, and the mitigating influence of school efficacy.  Journal of Quantitative Criminology ,  34 (2), 609–632.